


Araneidal

by WebbedUpKatanas



Category: Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Spidery!Pete
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-24 00:59:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4899418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WebbedUpKatanas/pseuds/WebbedUpKatanas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam always knew his life would be weird after he became a Nova, but becoming friends with a literal spider-man? He definitely couldn't have predicted that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Araneidal

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little mini pre-relationship ficlet I wrote to get out of writers block. I’m really invested in this universe, I make no promises but I have started writing another fic in this series and if it goes well there might be a few more. There are still a few things I’d like to put my lil homegrown Pete through, and besides I’m always a slut for spideynova, and this barely counts yet.

The room is dark when Sam enters, the chill of it immediately settling into his bones. The only sounds he can hear are of his footsteps echoing through the oppressive empty space and a faint stir of breathing, though he can’t be sure if it’s his own or someone else’s. 

There’s no point in using the nightvision on his helmet right now, but if he squints he can just make out the outlines of hundreds of spiderwebs, gleaming eerily in the faint blue glow of his Nova Force.

He feels a shiver go down his spine as he gropes along the wall, desperate to find the light switch.

The lights flicker, slowly growing brighter to reveal a nest of webbing, in the center of which there is a shape stirring at the sudden light. He shivers again, frozen in the doorway as the figure begins to move towards him…

“Hey Pete,” he says cheerfully, all sense of dramatics falling away as his eyes adjust to the light. “How’s it hanging?”

The figure shrouded in webbing pokes his head out, a smirk on his lips in response to the lame joke. Sam finds it kinda adorable that the guy is so into puns, especially given the fact that he’s still learning how to speak.

“Oh you know, it’s pretty fly,” he says, hesitating just enough that Sam knows he’s not quite sure if he used the term right. “Did you seriously need to wake me up?”

“Yup,” Sam grins, and then shivers again. “Jesus it’s like a freezer in here. Dude, just because you have AC doesn’t mean you have to go crazy with it.”

Peter tilts his head in that weird, not-quite-human way he has, blinking all six of his eyes at him like he’s trying to puzzle something out.

“Well the training book says we’re supposed to huddle for warmth in extreme cold situations,” Peter states, lowering himself down closer. “Are you asking me to huddle with you?”

Sam blinks. “I uh… no I mean that’s not… that’s only for-” he splutters, only to realize a second later that Peter is laughing at him.

What a jerk.

“For someone who couldn’t even read two months ago you caught on to being a shithead really fast,” he grumbles as Peter flips down and walks over, still looking pleased as punch at Sam’s awkward reaction.

“Sorry, couldn’t resist,” he says, grinning and baring those ever so slightly too sharp teeth at him. Sam can’t even be mad though, because then Peter is doing this weird little wiggly thing he always does before he gets too close, and Sam can’t help but find it hilarious. He’s sure it’s some weird spider thing, but that doesn’t stop it from being the greatest and stupidest thing he’d found out about Peter so far.

“So what’s up?” Peter asks him, moving in closer now that his wiggling is finished.

Sam huffs at him, amping up his Nova Force glow to keep himself warm. Seriously sometimes he thinks Peter must be part abominable snowman as well as part spider given how he never seems to notice the chill.

Although then again, they had found him in a broken down lab in the arctic. Naked. So yeah, the dude is probably used to cold temperatures.

That had been six months ago, but Sam remembers it like it was yesterday. If he closes his eyes he can recall the sickly green glow of the place perfectly. He can almost feel the cold that had seeped under his clothing when he’d powered down to look around at the row upon row of empty tubes, his feet crunching over shattered glass.

Ava had been the one to find Peter, although at the time he hadn’t had a name. Sam’s pretty sure Ock had been calling him by whatever number he’s pretty sure he’d spotted over his tube, but he hadn’t really been paying attention. He’d been a little bit distracted by the seemingly normal boy trapped inside, suspended in clear liquid. 

He remembers the feeling of bile rising to his throat at the sight. Whoever this guy was he looked about their age, and Sam shivered to think how long Ock had been holding him here. What kind of things he’d endured in that time. 

Freeing him had been surprisingly easy. The hard part had come when he woke up.

Not two, but six eyes blinking blearily up at Luke as he carried him had been the first sign that they might be dealing with something a little bit weird here. 

But if that hadn’t given it away, the ungodly shrieking and hissing as he struggled in Luke’s arms definitely would have. Not to mention the webs. And the super strength that had almost knocked his teammate flat on his ass.

In the end Ava had smacked him over the head with a beaker hard enough to knock him out in order to stop him struggling, and they’d brought him back to SHIELD.

Now, six months later, he’s probably the weirdest member of their team. Weirder even than Danny, and that dude once had his fist inside a dragon.

Sam shakes away the memories, focusing back in on the present and Peter’s question.

“Fury says you’re cleared for the field or something. I wasn’t really listening, I was on my DS. But I’m pretty sure he was saying something about you coming on patrol,” Sam shrugs, trying not to notice how excited Peter gets at the prospect.

“Really?! He’s not still mad about the whole uh… biting thing?” The same look Sam has seen a million times over the past week flickers across Peter’s face again. A heady mixture of guilt, regret, and what Sam thinks might be self-loathing that make his heart ache for a second every time.

Still… that doesn’t stop him from shivering in disgust this time rather than from the cold. Something about watching your teammate and friend lose control when they web someone up and try to eat them really sticks with you.

At least the guy had lived, despite the nasty venom that Peter apparently has when he bites.

Yeah. His friend is really really weird.

“Meh, whatever. It’s chill now, you won’t do it again right? So you might as well come back out and be a major pain in the ass again. It’s weird but I think I kinda missed having to babysit you,” Sam says, glad that Peter is coming along enough in learning English that he’s finally stopped taking everything Sam says seriously.

Peter squints at him, which is actually a lot more effective with a bunch more eyes than normal. It’s so not fair that Pete gets hardcore squinting powers along with everything else. It makes his glares six times more powerful too. Sam should know, he’s been on the receiving end of a good amount of those.

“Okay…” Peter says, sounding uncertain as he runs his hand through his hair. “If it’s… chill…”

“You have no idea what that means do you?” Sam asks him, smirking.

Peter pouts at him. “I know what it means! It’s like when you say cool.”

“Pfft, okay yeah I’ll give you that one. Nice job Webs,” he says, trying not to sound sarcastic. It really is amazing how quickly Peter is catching on. The SHIELD scientists are fascinated by how quickly he’s been learning, throwing out words like ‘genius level intellect’ and shit like that. Sam prefers to use words like 'insufferable douchebag’ and 'huge fucking dork’ just to keep him humble.

Peter grins, leaning in to press his arm against Sam’s, and Sam presses back happy to have made him smile. The poor dude has been locked up for pretty much his whole life, and it’s only in the last two months or so that he’s been seeing him actually look kinda happy for once.

“So are we just gonna stand here all day or are we gonna go kick some butt?”

“Fine Bucket Head, let’s go meet up with the team. Unless you still wanted to huddle…” Peter teases.

Sam rolls his eyes behind his helmet. It seems like with every new word Peter learns he manages to find a way to make fun of him with it, although he has to admit Bucket Head is better than Little Bitty Lightbulb.

They walk in silence for a bit, which isn’t really normal for them. Pete has taken to talking a little bit too much if you ask pretty much anyone he’s come in contact with, and Sam has had people to tell him to shut up more times than he can count. But despite the rarity of a silent moment between them he finds that this doesn’t feel awkward. Actually, it’s kinda nice.

“Hey Sam?” Peter says after a moment, looking over at him. With his four spidery eyes closed he almost looks human, and Sam thinks Fury might be right that someday if he learns to keep them closed Pete might be able to join them at high school. The teeth and the weird behavior might be a bit of a giveaway but hey, they can work on it.

He makes a noise of acknowledgement, drifting down a little so that Peter doesn’t have to look up quite as much. Still, Sam does like being tall, so he refuses to walk alongside the dork.

“I uh… you’ve been really… okay not nice. You’re actually an asshole,” Peter starts, only to be cut off by an indignant “Hey!”

“Dude you totally are. But I also really um… I like having you around? I can’t remember the word… but yeah. You’re cool, and I want… I mean I’d like to-” Peter stops abruptly as they reach the rest of the team loitering in the hallway.

“You want? What do you want? Hey, earth to Webs?” Sam says, waving his hand in front of Peter’s face as he stares nervously between the team and Sam.

“Uh. No that’s it. Just… yeah. Hey guys!”

Sam frowns as he watches Peter walk away and immediately climb up the wall to perch next to Danny and chat with him.

What the hell was that about?

Not that it wasn’t nice of Pete to say all that or whatever but… he feels like there’s something he’s not telling him and it’s annoying. He had kinda hoped Peter could trust him by now.

After all Sam has been hanging out with him since back in the growly hissy days. Back then he’d just sit outside of Peter’s cell and talk at him, staring transfixed at the scared creature who would only leave his webbed up corner to bare his teeth before skittering back to safety.

He’d overheard SHIELD agents talking a few times sitting there, enough to gather a few things about Peter and his origins, but Sam couldn’t believe that Peter was just a monster, not even back then. Not after the second week of sitting with him when Peter had finally come down and perched cautiously by Sam, just staring at him with his strikingly intelligent eyes.

Something about the way he had looked at him then still lingered with Sam. Like Peter was desperate to connect, to be understood. Like he wanted to trust him but wasn’t sure how. 

That’s why Sam had stuck it out, and now…

“You good?” Ava asks him as he hovers between her and Luke, still casting glances over at Peter.

“Huh? Oh yeah, yeah I’m fine. But like, do we actually have something to do today or is Fury gonna keep us waiting forever?”

Ava rolls her eyes at him, pulling her mask over her head. He’s always kinda wondered how she does that so smoothly with the ponytail and all. “You literally just got here. You can wait like the rest of us for orders.”

Sam huffs, crossing his arms moodily. When he glances back at Peter he’s signing to him, asking him what’s wrong.

Nothing. Bored. He signs back, pouting exaggeratedly when Peter laughs at his plight.

By the time Fury comes for them he’s practically buzzing with the need to do something, so when Peter stops him from following them into the briefing room with a hand on his shoulder he very nearly snaps at him.

Peter flinches a little when Sam spins around to face him with a frown and tense shoulders. He must be getting better at reading human body language and expressions if he’s able to tell that Sam is pissed.

“What?” Sam growls, and unlike his body language, his annoyed tone just makes Peter smile like a jackass.

“Calm down Sparkler. I just wanted to tell you something.”

Sam heaves a frustrated sigh. “So get on with it then! I’m so done with standing around. I want to go get some action!”

Peter grins wider at his exasperation, but the expression softens a little as he opens all of his eyes to look at him.

Not for the first time Sam finds himself a little bit transfixed by Peter’s face. He’s freaky looking sure, but in a weirdly pretty way, like a spider-powered heartthrob or something. It’s sort of disarming, and Sam isn’t sure how to feel about finding a spiderman attractive, even if it is just objectively.

“I just remembered the word I wanted to use before,” Peter says with a shrug, those spider eyes staring unblinkingly into his own. “Appreciate. I appreciate you Sam.”

With that he pushes past him into the room, leaving Sam in the hallway with a weird feeling in his chest and what he’s sure is the stupidest expression of all time on his face.

He takes a deep breath and shakes his head as if he can somehow shake off the warmth that’s settled over him. He can’t remember anyone ever saying those words to him before, and if they had he’s sure that it’s never been as sincere as it sounded on Peter’s lips.

He cant keep it off his mind. Not while Fury is talking about the mission, and not even once they get out onto the streets of New York. Maybe it’s stupid to feel so full of light from just those four little words, but for the rest of the day Sam can’t help but feel like he’s floating a little bit, even in those moments when his feet are firmly planted on the ground.


End file.
